The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-08-17
LAUREL CAMP.

OF the lounge in what her brothers called
their "boudoir," and gazcd with biz,
wistful gray eyes on the animated scene
before her.
The festive preparations are indeed al
most enough to make one wish one had
been born boy. Floor, chairs and
table are covered with a choice but
varied collection of hunting boots, fish
ing tackle, entomologists paraphernalia
of waxen headed pins, chloroform bot
ties. and butterfly nets, favorite authors
hammocks, and other evidences of a
right royal good time" The masculine
occupants of the room were all SO very
deeply engrossed, that their envious sis
ter's plaintivc wish fell on almost un.
needing ears.
Hal mut'ered: "W-wish you could =,
Tom gazed at her through the micro
scope-glass he was polishing, with an eve
enormously enlarged thereby, and smiled
IN conscious masculine superiority; and
only good natured Stecnic paused in his
struggles with his knapsack (Which
seemingly declined to accommodate his
blanket, work on anatomy, gossamer
coat and dismembered gum sufficiently
long to say with genuine brotherly good
will:
"And you should 90 in minute, Pom.
pity-it would be worth ten seaside sen
sons to you-if it were not for Val
Graham.
"Val Grahaml Who is hef Let him
stay at home, then. To make coffee in
dear little kettle swung on three sticks.
TO sleep In hammock, and be out doors
all summer" cries Miss Fleming. en-
Enthusiastically. "Oh, | will 90! What's
the matter with Mr.. Graham. Is he one
OF your fossilized professors who would
petrify simple maiden! i don't care
what he is, you need not imagine / would
ind time even to look at him. T. mag-
unanimously won't mind him a bit. -
But, b-b-bless you, my child, " eiacu-
lated Hal, energetically, sits not a oues-
ton of whether you would mimi Val
The boot is on the other leg. It's Val
would mind you. There's some romantic
stoiy about his being brought up by an
uncl who had been cruelty treated by
some lovely tiirt. Youthful affections
trampled on, and all that kind of thing.
Takes to the life of hermit, and edu-
Gates the ingenious Valentine to regard
with horror the whole female sex. Val
would sooner face 'wcnomous wiper'
than woman, and / am confident that.
If he suspected we meditated such treason
as the introduction of the dreaded ele
ment, he would flee to the uttermost
parts of the earth rather than 90 with us /;
and he the prime sIggester of the camp
ing scheme, too! Lastly, and finally, how
could such luxurious little lady rough
1t with lot of boys among the iupgles
of New York Statel It's impossible"
"Oh, you can say impossible: but |
could go, and you would take me, if it
were not for that odiOus creature! How
hate himm cries Bess, stormily.
"a letter for you, Mr.. Stephen and
the digniied butler steps solemnly over
the debris, and looks with stern disap-
proval at the disordered room.
From Val himself, is it not, Steenie?n
asked Tom.
"ies. Too bad, he can't 90, after all
attack of malarial fever-knows YOU
will have jolly time. Almost desperate
when ! think of your starting without
me, reads Steenie, disjointedly.
NOW | am goingw and Bess starts up
impetuously.
How can you I?
You'll see. I'll take Martha to take
care of me. I'll be ready in an hour, Mar
tha aud her budgets included" ," and Bess
vanished like small whirlwind. leaving
the trio too much astonished to do aught
butstare at each other in silence.
Did she accomplish it? OF corrse: /:
what other result was possible to so
much energy and spirit BY the time
the Others had finished their remarkable
masculine packing, Bess, bubbling over
with merry anticipation, was soothing
the dazed Martha, who was vibrating
between feeling of gipsyish delight at
what seemed to her a mad escapade
and gloomy presentiments of inevitable
rheumatism.
The scene shifts to the wilds of the
Empire State and a camp established in
their depths. This is no mere fashionable
tabernacle in the wilderness, but a real
camp, with amateur cooks, with spicy
hemlock beds, and with smoke black
ened kettle swinging overa swapping fire,
the smoke of which curls lazily upward,
making misty the delicate tracery of the
waving trees against the soft summer sky,
and hahmocks swinging like huge CO.
coons between the trees, inviting to
drowsy repose.
A few yards away an unseen mountain
brook tumbles its ice cold water into
the rocky river, and the two sing to-
gether in low monotone, telling of fern
fringed pools and gliding trout. Through
archways cut in the glossy laurel thicket
can be seen the paths that the feet of the
straying campers have already worn to
the woodland haunts beyond.
But the glory of the camp is the struc-
ture variously known as the "house, -
''shanty,n or "Laurel Lodge" Built
against little knoll, its supports living
trees, its roof of slabs (Which the busy
little river obligingly strews along its
banks from lumber regions further north
slopes almost TO the ground at the back.
Its sides are a thiekly woven mat of hem
lock boughs, held in place by horizontal
boards The facade Of the building pre-
sents a portal of magnid At proportions
from which the p0rtiere OF gorgeous quilt
laarlV EuOliehl ic Ioonad ogi1a dfeoloef,,.,